Donors pump volatility into proxy war in Syria

Tuesday

Nov 12, 2013 at 9:12 PM

By Ben Hubbard, THE NEW YORK TIMES

AL-SUBAYHIYAH, Kuwait — The money flows in via bank transfer or is delivered in bags or pockets bulging with cash. Working from his sparely furnished sitting room here, Ghanim al-Mteiri gathers the funds and transports them to Syria for the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad.

Al-Mteiri — one of dozens of Kuwaitis who openly raise money to arm the opposition — has helped turn this tiny, oil-rich Persian Gulf state into a virtual Western Union outlet for Syria's rebels, with the bulk of the funds he collects going to a Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida.

One Kuwait-based effort raised money to equip 12,000 rebel fighters for $2,500 each. Another campaign, run by a Saudi sheik based in Syria and close to al-Qaida, is called "Wage Jihad With Your Money." Donors earn "silver status" by giving $175 for 50 sniper bullets, or "gold status" by giving twice as much for eight mortar rounds.

"Once upon a time we cooperated with the Americans in Iraq," said al-Mteiri, a former soldier in the Kuwaiti army, recalling the U.S. role in pushing Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991. "Now we want to get Bashar out of Syria, so why not cooperate with al-Qaida?"

Outside support for the warring parties in Syria has helped sustain the conflict and transformed it into a proxy battle by regional powers, with Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah helping the government and with Saudi Arabia and Qatar providing the main support for the rebels.

But the flow of private funds to rebel groups has added a wild-card factor to the war, analysts say, exacerbating divisions in the opposition and bolstering its most extreme elements. While the West has been hesitant to arm and finance the more secular forces that initially led the turn to armed rebellion, fighters have flocked to Islamist militias and in some cases rebranded themselves as jihadist because that is where the money is.

"It creates a self-sustaining dynamic that is totally independent of all the strategic and diplomatic games that are happening and being led by states," said Emile Hokayem, an analyst in the Middle East with the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Most private donors shun the Western-backed Supreme Military Council, undermining a body meant to unify the rebels into a moderate force. And they dismiss the opposition's political leadership as well as calls by the U.S. and other powers for peace talks.

Sheik Mohammed Haif al-Mteiri, a former member of Parliament who is not related to the former Kuwaiti soldier and leads a committee that funds mainline rebel groups, said private funding would not exist if countries like the U.S. had intervened to protect Syrian civilians.

Kuwait lacks a tough police state like those that have cracked down on such activity in other Gulf states, and a range of Islamists participate in its relatively open political system. A number of former parliamentarians actively raise funds, and some have traveled to Syria to meet their rebel allies.

The nation's location and banking system also make it easy for donors from more restrictive countries to wire money in or drive it across the border for drop-off.